Rock Creek Woods Silver Spring MD

Charles Wagner-designed mid-century modern in Moyaone Reserve.

Demand for Mid-Century Modern Homes Strong

UrbanTurf writes about the continuing demand for mid-century modern homes in the Washington area despite Mad Men being off the air for the past five years.
“Mad Men concluded its television run in 2015 and it seemed like people’s infatuation with mid-century modern design went with it,” writes Nena Perry-Brown. “However, interest in the DC area’s mid-century housing market remains high.”
Read the full article here and explore some of the mid-century modern neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C. area.

Washingtonian Top Agent

Washingtonian Magazine Top Agent Recognition

I am honored to be recognized once again as a Washingtonian Magazine Top Agent. Thank you to all of my clients, family and friends who have supported Modern Capital for the past 14 years. Please reach out if you are thinking of buying or selling a mid-century modern home. Happy to meet and discuss today’s modern real estate market.

Eames lounge chair

Furnishing a Mid-Century Modern Home: Inspiration & Sourcing

A guest post on sourcing mid-century modern furniture from our partner, ATTIC.
Nothing completes a beautiful mid-century home like furniture and decor drawn from the same aesthetic. The simple, sleek lines of MCM furniture pair up perfectly with the modern, open and airy feel that make mid-century homes the gems that they are. The following post provides some inspiration, whether you’re just starting or continuing to furnish your home. We’ll focus on two spaces: dining rooms and living rooms.

We’re also going to introduce you to ATTIC, a one-of-kind resource that will help you find the best mid-century furniture from stores of the DC and Baltimore regions. After all, who wants to buy a “forever” piece of furniture without ever seeing or touching it? ATTIC makes that process so much easier. ATTIC is now available in cities throughout the country, but is owned and operated by a small team based right here in Washington, D.C. Its mission is simple — to make it easier for consumers to shop from small, local businesses.

Dinner is Served, In Style
Whether it’s with family or friends, the importance of meal time transcends culture. As such, dining rooms and breakfast nooks are often visual focal points in modern homes. And with pieces like those pictured here, it’s no wonder why. Rectangular, round, “boat-shaped”…small, grand, or expandable…mid-century dining tables come in a vast array of options. Likewise, some of the most famous furniture designs in history are those for mid-century dining chairs.

Rosewood Dining Table
Read More >

My New Listing Under Contract, Open Cancelled

My new Goodman listing in Rock Creek Woods went under contract in two days so I have cancelled the open house scheduled for this coming Sunday. Thanks for all the positive comments on the property. Stay tuned for more mid-century modern and other contemporary homes I will be listing soon. Hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend.

Pepco Chops Cherry Trees in Rock Creek Woods

The Washington Post reports this morning on Pepco chopping down the beloved cherry trees in Charles Goodman’s Rock Creek Woods. Residents of the mid-century modern community just north of Kensington are not pleased. “Between 1959 and 1960, as Rock Creek Woods was being built by architect Charles Goodman, neighbors asked the county to plant Yoshinos alongside their three curving roads,” the Post writes. “The cherry trees form a canopy and provide shade. For Washingtonians-in-the-know, Rock Creek Woods is also a less crowded place to see the same cherry trees that become so popular at the Tidal Basin in April, or in the Kenwood neighborhood near Bethesda.”

‘Anatomy of a Neighborhood’: Rock Creek Woods

Can architecture create community? Mariann Seriff, a long-time creative director who is currently pursuing a master’s in integrated design, sought to answer that question in a two-part radio piece examining her own neighborhood: Charles Goodman’s Rock Creek Woods in Silver Spring. “The mid-century modern architecture of Rock Creek Woods plays a vital role in making it a thriving neighborhood,” says Seriff, who has lived in the neighborhood since 2001. “When architect Charles Goodman designed the homes in the 1950s, he had no way of knowing they would attract an eclectic group of individuals who would form a vibrant community that is still flourishing today.” Rock Creek Woods is a small, self-contained neighborhood with 74 homes and has only one road in and out, creating a secluded haven of modernist homes. The neighborhood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Listen to Seriff “Anatomy of a Neighborhood” Part I, which focuses on the architecture ( I’m interviewed for this piece), and Part II, which focuses on the real sense of community created during the past 50 years.

Open House Picks for Sunday

I'm holding my Goodman listing in Rock Creek Woods open on Oct. 10 from 12-3 p.m.
The price on my Charles Goodman listing in Rock Creek Woods has dropped another $20,000 to $519K. I will be holding an open house this Sunday (Oct. 10) from 12 to 3 p.m. The 5 bedroom/3 bath home is the only Goodman currently on the market in Montgomery County, so come on out and take a look. Read more here.
Here are some other interesting mid-century modern homes open on Sunday. Take a look at this 1964 modern on more than an acre in Mt. Washington in Baltimore listed for $565K. If you are searching in Virginia, take a look at this 1955 mid-century in Lake Barcroft that I wrote about here. Looking in D.C., check out this new listing in the Palisades for a 1979 contemporary with an open, modern interior.

Located in a peaceful setting of mature trees in the National Register of Historic Places-designated neighborhood of Rock Creek Woods, this 1959 mid-century modern was designed by one of the 20th Century’s leading modern architects, Charles Goodman. The central focus of the two-level, 5 bedroom/3 bath home is the second-floor open living area. The expansive space features Goodman’s signature large brick fireplace, beautiful refinished hardwoods and wall of glass that allows for unfettered views of the trees, including the explosion of cherry blossoms in the spring. A large, wood deck allows you to enjoy the .2 acre lot and surrounding nature.
The home’s upper level features Read More >

Cherry Blossoms and Modernism

If you want to enjoy the weather this weekend, see the cherry blossoms before they disappear and see some modern architecture for good measure, you may want to head to Rock Creek Woods in Silver Spring (map). The community by architect Charles Goodman and builders Herschel and Marvin Blumberg has dozens of Yoshino cherry trees. When the neighborhood was built, homeowners agreed to pay Montgomery County $10 per cherry tree planted. Nearly four dozen more tree were planted in 1998, while nearly three dozen were planted in 2001, according to the neighborhood’s website. Another place to see modernism and cherry trees without the crowds of the Tidal Basin is the U.S. National Arboretum. The arboretum has more than 2,000 trees, the largest collection of cherry blossoms outside the Tidal Basin. If you go, make sure to check out the Administration Building, with its zig-zag roof. The building was designed in the early 1960s by Albert G. Mumma Jr. of the architecture firm Deigert & Yerkes. Below are a few pictures from my quick walk through Rock Creek Woods. Have a good weekend.

FSBO: 1959 Rock Creek Woods Goodman

The owners of this 5-bedroom, 3-bath Charles Goodman in Rock Creek Woods are looking for interested buyers to make an offer on the 1959 home, which is located at 4007 Ingersol Dr. The 76-home community in Silver Spring by Goodman and builders Herschel and Marvin Blumberg is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a great place to view the Cherry blossoms. Here’s a recent piece in the Examiner about the mid-century modern community.

Washington Examiner Highlights Goodman’s Rock Creek Woods

Today’s Washington Examiner has a piece highlighting the “mid-century modern revival” in Charles Goodman’s Rock Creek Woods and gives a nice shout out to my efforts here to spread the MCM word in D.C.

Vintage Goodman Advertisements

Local MCM fan and winner of Modern Capital’s recent contest Karl Ericson has put together a nice Flickr pool of vintage newspaper ads promoting homes and communities designed by Charles Goodman, including the one above heralding Rock Creek Woods. Thanks Karl.

Rock Creek Wood’s Marks 50th Anniversary

Congratulations to the current and former residents of Rock Creek Woods, the Charles Goodman-designed community off Connecticut Avenue in Silver Spring for marking the community’s 50th anniversary with a Labor Day weekend celebration. The residents kicked off the festivities on Saturday with a reception at the neighborhood’s Good Shepherd Church to reminisce and socialize. This was followed by a 1960s themed pot luck dinner. After dinner, the residents enjoyed dessert and a slideshow focused on the history of the community.

An original marketing sign was on display at one of the homes on the tour.

On Sunday, residents (and this lucky blogger) enjoyed a Home and Garden Tour of 10 different residences in the 76-home community, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Place in 2004. Several of the homes hosted live music performances, while one hosted a wine tasting party. In addition to the activities to mark the occasion, members of the community created a book containing such items as original brochures and essays about the neighborhood by residents. Here’s to another 50 years to a great mid-century modern neighborhood, not to mention a great group of people.

Does this house look familiar? It is the onein the Modern Capital logo.

One of the signatures of Goodman’s Rock Creek Woods designs:large exterior chimneys as seen above and below.

1959 Rock Creek Woods Goodman Open Again on Sunday

The house in Rock Creek Woods that my logo is based on is open again this Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. It’s listed at $599K

Crest Park Goodmans Highlighted in Post

Did you see the Post’s “Where We Live” column on Saturday? Homes by Charles Goodman got a shout out and picture in the piece about Hillandale in Silver Spring. Located in the Crest Park subdivision, the 25 homes built in the 1960s reflect Goodman’s designs seen earlier in Rock Creek Woods.
“The Goodman houses are situated not only at the most prominent corners of the development (such as Schindler and La Grande Drives,) but also at the choicest sites topographically, abutting woodlands and streambeds,” architectural historian Elizabeth Jo Lampl writes in her 2004 monograph on the architect’s subdivisions in Montgomery County. “One can only imagine Goodman insisting on these sites for some of his model houses.”
While I do not see any Goodmans for sale in the neighborhood, this MCM by Patterson & Worland is still on the market after nearly two years.

Carderock Springs is Now Historic

Carderock Springs, the mid-century modern community in Bethesda built in the 1960s by pioneering developer Edmund Bennett and designed by Arthur Keyes, Francis Donald Lethbridge and David Condon, was named to the National Register of Historic Places in December after a four-year effort by residents and county officials. Charles Goodman’s Rock Creek Woods, Hammond Wood and five homes on Takoma Avenue are other the MCM communities in Montgomery County on the National Register. Read more about Carderock’s designation here.

Post Highlights Goodman’s Rock Creek Woods

The Washington Post highlights Charles Goodman’s Rock Creek Woods in its “Where We Live” column, with writer Andrea Rouda saying that “outstanding architecture doesn’t have to be wildly expensive. … Every resident lives in a work of art, but the average selling price is about $600,000.”
Goodman, whose architecture was heavily influenced by Mies van Der Rohe and Walter Gropius, took great care in siting each of the 76 homes in the Silver Spring neighborhood located here, which was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
“Like Frank Lloyd Wright before him, Goodman believed strongly that a house should enhance its natural setting without destroying it,” Rouda writes. “Because he insisted on siting each home to take advantage of the rocky topography, the houses all front on slightly different angles, giving them the flavor of tree houses scattered in a forest. The land is hilly and rocky, so each house has a lower level that is partially underground at or near the front, but fully above ground with a patio door and floor-to-ceiling windows at the side or back.”
One of the distinctive features of Goodman’s homes in Rock Creek Woods are the funky color exterior hardboard, or Masonite panels. Elizabeth Jo Lampl, in her research supporting the neighborhood’s effort to be listed on the National Register, writes that Goodman’s firm “developed a color chart to guide the exterior staining and painting of the house and its trim. … Goodman specified that the vertical wall panels, flush Read More >

Carderock’s Bid for the National Register of Historic Places

The Gazette takes a look at Carderock Spring’s effort launched fours years ago to be placed on the National Register of Historic places. “In the 1960s, Bethesda’s Carderock Springs neighborhood was lauded with national attention in the architecture world because of its contemporary design and incorporation of homes into the natural landscape,” Bradford Pearson writes. “It is now in the final stages of completing the approval process for being named to the National Parks Services’ Register of Historic Places.” The community was built by developer Edmund Bennett and the architectural team of Keyes, Lethbridge & Condon, AIA.
Pearson notes that “if approved, the neighborhood would join other county neighborhoods, including the Garrett Park and Kensington historic districts, on the historic register.” Correct, but he fails to mention the three other modern Montgomery County communities already on the register: Charles Goodman’s Rock Creek Woods, Hammond Wood and his five Takoma Avenue homes in Takoma Park.

Price Drop: Two Goodmans in Rock Creek Woods

These two 1959 Charles Goodmans in Rock Creek Woods in Silver Spring have had their prices cut. The 76-home community, built by Herschel and Marvin Blumberg, entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
This 3/3 is down to $610K from $622K. Here’s the address.
This 6/3 home looks like one of Charles Goodman’s larger designs. It’s dropped from $679K to $645K. Here’s the address.